Canada crushes Czechs in junior hockey tune-up
LONDON, Ont. — Carter Hart had a 23-save shutout in Canada’s 9-0 rout of the Czech Republic on Wednesday night in a tune-up game ahead of the world junior hockey championship.
Taylor Raddysh had a pair of goals for Canada, with linemate Robert Thomas adding a goal and two assists. Maxime Comtois had the eventual winner, while Jake Bean, Boris Katchouk, Jonah Gadjovich, Drake Batherson and Cal Foote also scored in front of a sold-out crowd of 9,036 at Budweiser Garden.
Jakub Skarek stopped 25 of 34 shots in net for the Czech Republic. Josef Korenar turned aside two shots in relief.
Canada’s win came in the first of two pre-tournament exhibition games the team is hosting ahead of the world championships that begin in Buffalo, New York, on Boxing Day.
Before the game, head coach Dominique Ducharme said that defenceman Dante Fabbro (lower body) and forward Dillon Dubé (shoulder) were day-to-day. He also indicated that backup goaltender Colton Point might start against Switzerland on Friday in Hamilton.
Comtois finished off a tic-tactoe play with Alex Formenton and Cale Klague by batting the puck past Skarek to give the Canadians the lead. It punctuated a lengthy three-minute span where Canada dominated possession, getting several shots off and stripping the Czech defence of the puck any time they tried to clear it out of their own end.
Thomas and Raddysh made it 2-0 with a perfectly executed two-on-one. Thomas carried the puck over the blue line, passed to Raddysh, who deked out Skarek before passing the puck back, giving Thomas a wide-open net.
Bean wired a wrist shot from the top of the face-off circle just over five minutes into the second period to increase Canada’s lead to 3-0. A slapshot from Katchouk with 2:50 left in the second made it 4-0.
Skarek was chased from net by Canada’s ninth goal of the night at the 14:22 mark of the third period. Another pass across the crease landed on the stick of Foote, who popped it into a wide-open net.